Res­i­den­tial Ten­an­cies Act 2010 (NSW) reforms and oblig­a­tions of land­lords — effec­tive from 19 May 2025

Intro­duc­tion

The Res­i­den­tial Ten­an­cies Act 2010 (NSW) (the Act) and the Res­i­den­tial Ten­an­cies Reg­u­la­tion 2019 (NSW) (the Reg­u­la­tions) have under­gone some sig­nif­i­cant changes fol­low­ing a pro­longed and exten­sive con­sul­ta­tion peri­od with prop­er­ty man­age­ment stake­hold­ers. These changes have gen­er­at­ed a lot of buzz as they seek to improve the rights of ten­ants in NSW and to deliv­er a fair­er, more sta­ble rental mar­ket – but are these reforms enough and will they be to the detri­ment of prop­er­ty investors? 

This arti­cle dis­cuss­es the reforms and the oblig­a­tions of land­lords – effec­tive from 19 May 2025. 

End­ing a tenancy

Present­ly, a land­lord can ter­mi­nate a ten­an­cy with­out pro­vid­ing any rea­son. If a ten­ant is on a peri­od­ic lease, then the land­lord has had to pro­vide 90 days notice, for a no-grounds ter­mi­na­tion notice, and the ten­ant would have to vacate on or before the ter­mi­na­tion date. The new reforms are abol­ish­ing no grounds ter­mi­na­tion notices completely. 

From 19 May 2025, land­lords must pro­vide a valid rea­son to end the ten­an­cy as well as pro­vide ten­ants with a Ter­mi­na­tion Infor­ma­tion State­ment (this will be a pre­scribed form and is not yet avail­able to the pub­lic). When ter­mi­nat­ing a ten­an­cy going for­ward, land­lords will need to pro­vide doc­u­men­ta­tion to sup­port the rea­sons they seek to end the ten­an­cy. Pre­scribed rea­sons include but are not lim­it­ed to:

• the res­i­den­tial premis­es will be offered for sale, with vacant pos­ses­sion (it must be not­ed on the con­tract for sale) 
• the res­i­den­tial premis­es will be sub­ject to works for sig­nif­i­cant ren­o­va­tions or repairs, and the premis­es need to be vacant in order for the works to be com­plet­ed, which must com­mence with­in 2 months of the ter­mi­na­tion date
• the res­i­den­tial premis­es will be demol­ished, and the demo­li­tion is planned to com­mence with­in 2 months of the ter­mi­na­tion date
• a rel­e­vant per­son will reside at the res­i­den­tial premis­es for at least 6 months. A ​‘rel­e­vant per­son’ is defined as:
  • the land­lord
  • a spouse or de fac­to part­ner of the landlord
  • a par­ent, grand­par­ent, child, grand­child, sib­ling, child of a sib­ling, sib­ling of a par­ent or first cousin of the land­lord or a spouse or de fac­to part­ner of the landlord. 

End­ing a Fixed-Term tenancy

Pre­vi­ous­ly, land­lords could ter­mi­nate a fixed-term ten­an­cy by pro­vid­ing the ten­ant with 30 days’ notice before the lease expired. This is no longer the case. 

If the lease is for a fixed term of 6 months or less, the land­lord will be required to give 60 days’ notice. 

If the lease is for a fixed term of more than 6 months, the land­lord will be required to give 90 days’ notice. 

Restric­tions on Re-Letting

If a land­lord has ter­mi­nat­ed a ten­an­cy due to an inten­tion to sell, or ren­o­vat­ing the prop­er­ty for exam­ple, they will be unable to re-let the prop­er­ty for a set peri­od of time once the pre­vi­ous ten­an­cy has been ter­mi­nat­ed. How­ev­er, sit­u­a­tions change and there may be instances where the prop­er­ty in ques­tion is avail­able for re-let before the pre­scribed time peri­od expires. When this occurs, the land­lord will be required to file an appli­ca­tion with NSW Fair Trad­ing seek­ing approval to re-let the prop­er­ty before the pre­scribed time peri­ods due to sit­u­a­tions out of their con­trol. The pre­scribed time peri­ods are:

• 6 months if a ter­mi­na­tion notice was issued on the grounds of sell­ing the property 
• 4 weeks in the case of ren­o­va­tions and repairs 
• 6 months under the demo­li­tion provision
• 6 months after a ter­mi­na­tion notice was issued stip­u­lat­ing a rel­e­vant per­son was mov­ing in. 

For abun­dant clar­i­ty, if a land­lord pro­vides a ter­mi­na­tion notice on any of the grounds above, and the ten­ant vacates, the land­lord is restrict­ed from re-let­ting the prop­er­ty for that time peri­od unless NSW Fair Trad­ing per­mits an ear­li­er re-let date. When seek­ing approval from NSW Fair Trad­ing, sup­port­ing doc­u­men­ta­tion will need to be provided.

More infor­ma­tion about the appli­ca­tion process is present­ly unknown – we antic­i­pate there will be issues around time frames and query whether there will be any avenue for an appeal if the land­lord’s appli­ca­tion gets denied. 

Keep­ing of Pets

The new reforms pre­vent land­lords from adver­tis­ing that pets are not per­mit­ted in prop­er­ties and require ten­ants to for­mal­ly apply to keep a pet. The form of appli­ca­tion will be a pre­scribed form and must be made by all ten­ants and pro­vid­ed to the landlord/​agent before the ten­an­cy agree­ment com­mences. Land­lords will have to reply to the for­mal request with­in 21 days oth­er­wise con­sent is auto­mat­i­cal­ly assumed. If a land­lord refus­es con­sent, they must pro­vide the grounds they’ve relied on to refuse which include:

• the keep­ing of the ani­mal at the premis­es would result in an unrea­son­able num­ber of ani­mals being kept in the premises 
• the fenc­ing is not appropriate
• there is insuf­fi­cient open space
• the nature of the premis­es means the ani­mal could not be kept at the premis­es humanely; 
• keep­ing the ani­mal is like­ly to cause dam­age that would cost more to rea­son­ably repair than the bond 
• the land­lord resides at the premises
• the keep­ing of the ani­mal would con­tra­vene a law, coun­cil order, or a by-law. 

If none of the above grounds apply, then the land­lord must pro­vide their consent. 

It is impor­tant to note that this does not apply to assis­tance animals. 

Con­clu­sion

The reforms are an attempt to bal­ance the rights between both par­ties to a lease agree­ment – but as in any sit­u­a­tion like this, one par­ty will feel that their rights are impinged. As is the case in any new leg­isla­tive update, we will be close­ly mon­i­tor­ing how ten­ants, agents and land­lords nav­i­gate these changes and what impact, if any, they will have on the NSW Civ­il and Admin­is­tra­tive Tri­bunal’s work­load. For more infor­ma­tion on these reforms, as well as oth­ers not men­tioned above, please con­tact me directly.